Good evening friends. I feel like my day is incomplete if I do not blog, I can hardly believe how much I enjoy this.
Well,as you can imagine, my "sickness" was not the "flu" which we had told several people. I knew that I was "in the family way" as they called it in the "olden days" I just was not ready to say it out loud yet. Lee and I like many young couples had all these plans we dreamed about. Now all of a sudden we hit a snag, and it was time to face reality.
I made an appointment with a "family doctor" who probably delivered everyone in that small western NY town. I had probably been to the doctor a couple times in my life and NEVER had that kind of examinatiion! I'm sure the doc had a huge laugh after I walked out of his office with this look of disbelief on my face. Here was another example of how naive I was. I said to him "we just got married on November 21st" in a rather high pitched voice. (It was Jan 6th 1960) He said to me "well my dear, it doesn't take long!" It was difficult to be happy at first when I was still in a state of shock. However, it wasn't long before I started making baby clothes and thinking about the baby names. My EDC (expected date of confinement) was August 21st. After Lee and I talked about it we realized that I would not be able to continue working at the institution past 3months. This is how it was at the time girls, they said it was for my safety, and there was no negotiating. So the gist of it was that our wonderful income would now be cut in half! Time flew by and I had to terminate my position in March of 1960. We tried to plot along on one salary, Lee's earnings for that year were $3175.00. Can you believe that? Our rent was only $75.00, we bought some furniture, that was a payment of $27.00/month and we had purchased a 1955 Chevie which was $29.00/month. That was a total of $131/month without food, and Lee's net pay was $90.00 every 2 wks.
I want to mention here that Lee and I were refused a loan for the car from the bank. We were 19 yrs old and of course had no credit history. Thankfully, Lee's 70 yr. old Grandmother rescued us and co-signed for the loan. (she made us promise that we would never tell Grampa that she had co-signed for the loan) We vowed that we would not disappoint her and our payments were always on time. That was the first and last time we were refused a loan.
Within a short time after I had left my job Lee got a partime job. For $1.00/hr he pumped gas, and since the same guy who ran the gas station took care of the local cemetery, Lee dug graves by hand also for $1.00/hr. I started to take in ironing to earn a little extra money. Many nights I would iron until midnight so that I could earn $2.00 for the entire basket of clothes. Lee would leave the house at 0600 and return at 11:30 to shower, eat his main meal and get ready for his other job, those hrs were 1430-2100.
I would spend the entire day alone, we only had one car. I cooked and baked everyday and did some sewing for the baby. We never complained or thought it was a hardship, we both pitched in and counted our pennies and just kept going. For the first time in my life I felt safe, so there was really nothing that scared me anymore. I looked forward to Lee returning home each night and we would talk and sit up and watch The Joey Bishop Show. I guess we loved each other so much that we didn't see any obstacles in our way. I can honestly state here that Lee and I have never had an argument about money, in 50 years of marriage, I think it is exemplary. Lee always said "why argue over what you don't have!" He is the type of guy that if I need money he just gives me his wallet. If he has $2.00 or $2000.00 in his wallet he does not care what I take, and never even asks me. Over the years I have witnessed the whole Q & A process take place when a woman asks her husband for money, I have always been grateful that Lee never embarrassed me like that.
AUF WIEDERSEHEN for now. Carol